Krista Dedrick-Lai

STATEMENT

My multi-disciplinary practice integrates figurative painting, fiber sculptures and a family ritual of collecting small bits of trash (redefined as “treasure”) from our South Philadelphia neighborhood. I use bright colors, chunky mark-making, and irreverent weaving techniques to foreground the presence of the human hand. Translucent, anonymous figures navigate the psychological space of my paintings; building, weaving, and dismantling themselves and their environments. The process I use to construct my fiber and mixed media works is a mirror of the way my painted figures behave. I create, dismantle, and reassemble; finding beauty in decay and weaving a new tapestry from the loose threads of an unraveling reality. The “treasures” collected by my family and I are woven into small blankets, tucked into handmade pockets or filtered through inadequate baskets that can’t possibly hold them. I paint, weave, and sew bittersweet realities into art pieces; a meditation on radical joy, hope and longing for a better world. A lot of what I am thinking about when I’m making artwork, whether that’s a figurative painting or sculpture made of garden hoses and old clothes, is how to find a way through difficult circumstances or difficult feelings, into a place that is a little easier and, perhaps, even beautiful.